NBC did bene but not molto bene with its first full week of coverage of the Turin Winter Olympic Games. The network won the week of Feb. 13 in viewers and adults 18-49, but feisty competition from Fox and ABC sent the peacock network to the lowest viewer and adults 18-49 levels and the smallest weekly demo advantage for a network carrying a full week of Olympics since at least 1988. NBC's weekly average of 19.4 million viewers and a 5.9 rating/15 share among adults 18-49 is still a personal best for the network since the week of Aug. 23-29, 2004, the final week of the Athens Summer Olympics.
- 2/23/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
NEW YORK -- Simon Cowell and his musical friends crushed the Turin Winter Olympics again Wednesday, doubling the Turin games in total viewers and tripling them in adults 18-49. The two-hour American Idol averaged 31.4 million viewers and a 13.4 rating/32 share in the adults 18-49 demographic on Wednesday night's network primetime, according to preliminary data released Thursday by Nielsen Media Research. The Idol audience grew throughout, averaging 27.5 million at 8 p.m., 32.9 million at 9 p.m. and concluding with 33.7 million between 9:30 and 10 p.m. NBC's Winter Olympics coverage came in second but it was still an also ran, averaging 15.5 million viewers and a 4.5/11 in the demographic according to Nielsen data.
- 2/23/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
NEW YORK -- Stung by lower-than-expected ratings on the broadcast network and a lackluster performance by the U.S. team in Turin, NBC went on the offensive this week as the two-week Winter Olympics skied into its final days. Ratings have skidded, no matter what yardstick you use. NBC's primetime ratings for the Turin Olympics have delivered an average 12.5 household rating through Friday night, the latest Nielsen Media Research data released. That's down 35% from the same point during 2002's Salt Lake City games and down 26% from the 1998 games in Nagano, Japan. NBC's primetime viewership has also dropped, with an average 20.6 million to date compared with 31.4 million for Salt Lake City and 25.5 million for Nagano.
- 2/22/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
NEW YORK -- Despite a less-than-spectacular showing by the U.S. and corresponding lower ratings, NBC will make between $50 million and $75 million on this year's Turin Winter Olympics. That's the word from NBC Sports chairman Dick Ebersol, who told reporters Tuesday that things weren't as bad from Turin as it seemed. "We're profitable. We see on these games a profit between $50 (million) and $75 million with the number being closer to $75 million," Ebersol said. This year's Winter Olympics have faced strong competition from several networks, including ABC and particularly Fox's American Idol. In years past, the other networks would mostly show repeats for the duration of the games. NBC's coverage is down nearly 25% from the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, and even further from the 2002 Salt Lake City games. But NBC, which promised between a 12 and a 14 household rating to advertisers, doesn't expect major shortfalls that will cause it to scramble among advertisers. "At this point we are not even discussing makegoods and it's the belief of the business side of the company that we won't need to," Ebersol said. One bright side: NBCOlympics.com is playing an even bigger role than ever before. Ebersol said it's the first time that the company will make a profit from the Web site, between $5 million and $6 million. "Our Internet business is exploding. We've already reached in the first eight days of these Olympics the total number of people that we reached during the Games in Salt Lake City," Ebersol said.
- 2/21/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The Turin Winter Olympics finally scored a Nielsen gold medal for NBC on Monday. The peacock won every half hour of the night with its Winter Olympics coverage of ice dancing and various skiing events. Viewership peaked between 10-10:30 p.m. at 23.9 million viewers and 7.5 rating/17 share in the adults 18-49 demographic, according to preliminary estimates from Nielsen Media Research. NBC's tape-delayed coverage of the Winter Olympic games in Turin, Italy, has proven vulnerable in the face of primetime's biggest hits, including Fox's American Idol and ABC's Desperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy. But NBC had a pretty clear playing field on Monday. Fox was only network to that managed to be competitive with dramas House (14.1 million, 5.3/13) and 24 (13.7 million, 5.7/3). CBS was wall-to-wall reruns, highlighted by the 10 p.m. encore of CSI: Miami (12.1 million, 4.1/10). ABC did so-so business with a two-hour edition of Wife Swap (9.1 million, 4.0/9) capped by 10 p.m. special The Bachelor: The Women Tell All (8.7 million, 4.0/10). For the night, NBC topped out at 22.5 million viewers and 6.8/16 in the key demo.
- 2/21/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The lighting of the Olympic Cauldron in Turin, Italy, turned on the rating lights at NBC. With three days of Turin Winter Olympics coverage, NBC scored its highest weekly marks in total viewers and adults 18-49 since the final days of the last Olympics, the 2004 Athens Summer Games, and its first weekly win in both categories since the week of Sept. 6, 2004. Still, it was Fox's juggernaut American Idol, ABC's hot Sunday dramas and CBS' hit CSI: Crime Scene Investigation that dominated the top five of the weekly program rankings in total viewers and adults 18-49. Wednesday's Idol (28.7 million viewers, 11.4 rating/29 share among adults 18-49) came out almost unscathed from its face-off with CBS' coverage of the Grammy Awards (17 million, 7.1/18), soundly beating the star-studded event and dipping only slightly from the previous week.
- 2/15/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
NBC's Turin Winter Olympics coverage dominated Monday's primetime competition, drawing more than 20 million viewers to its coverage of figure skating and speed skating, among other events. NBC's 8-11 p.m. coverage averaged 21 million viewers and a healthy 6.5 rating/16 share in the adults 18-49 demographic, according to preliminary estimates from Nielsen Media Research. Viewership peaked between 10-10:30 p.m. at 22.4 million viewers and 7.5/18 in the key demo. Fox's 24 (13.5 million, 5.4/13) continued its hot streak and was competitive against the extraordinary competition in the 9 p.m. hour, overcoming a weak 8 p.m. lead-in from Skating With Celebrities (7.5 million, 2.6/7). CBS served up a slate of repeats with the exception of 9:30 p.m. rookie Courting Alex (11.2 million, 3.7/8), which had a hard time holding on to its respectable lead-in from the 9 p.m. encore of Two and a Half Men (13.7 million, 4.4/10). ABC was lukewarm from 9-11 p.m. with a two-hour dose of The Bachelor (9.2 million, 4.2/10) coming out of an 8 p.m. repeat of Wife Swap (8,8 million, 3.5/9). For the night, NBC had no competition for the Nielsen gold. CBS was No. 2 in viewers (11.3 million) while Fox took the silver in adults 18-49 (4.0/10).
- 2/14/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
NBC's tape-delayed coverage of Friday's opening ceremony of the XX Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, delivered the highest numbers that any network has had on that low-rated night in nearly two years, since the last time NBC was in its Olympics zone in August 2004. But in the larger picture, especially in the 18-49 demographic column, the Olympics pageantry couldn't match the turnout for a typical night of Fox's American Idol, CBS' CSI: Crime Scene Investigation or ABC's Desperate Housewives or Lost. The primetime portion of NBC's 8-11:46 p.m. telecast of the 2006 Olympics kickoff drew an average of 22.8 million viewers and a 6.6 rating/19 share in adults 18-49, according to preliminary estimates from Nielsen Media Research.
- 2/12/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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